A worldwide company making consumer electronics shutdown its Copenhagen branch a year or so ago. You cant just leave a campus of three big office buildings and 1000+ employees, most engineers, overnight, so by about now they are getting close to actually hand the empty buildings over. As a socially responsible company they are handing some of the leftovers to organizations like schools, needy homes and so on.
Of their R&D stuff, most of the good/expensive and in particular anything propriaritary equipment is handed to their other offices around the globe, but then there is a leftover remainder which is just "rubbish". They just can not be bothered to spend a year selling it on ebay. (If I did it it would be fulltime and yield a respectable income - there is so much!) My local hackerspace has been allowed to look at the leftovers and see if we can reuse some.
I think we now have enough SMD components to last us until that technology is as old as the radiovalve, we've have dozens or more movingboxes of the stuff. Similarily we filled a car or three of sorting boxes/cupboard/drawer systems of all shapes and sizes, and some odds and ends. The best bit was a few "robots" (small EM-radiationproof cupboard filled with pneumatic and electromechanics that did some assembly or stress test) for dissasembly of parts - and som large enviroment chambers also semirobotic - but the frames cam be easily reassembled into new boxes for our projects.
We were 8 men sorting, dissambling and loading into our trailers this afternoon and we will continue for two days more, or until we no longer can store any more in our space. We'll spend weeks giving it a second sorting and probably throwing half out. (What on earth does one do with 5000 small SMD induction coils?) It has been a great day, though
Some components might be worth more to you as scrap - copper prices...
Machines can be a source of stepper motors, air cylinders and other mechanical components.
Look to salvage with a thought ot potential uses. Some components that you collect will be of little use and you will just have to toss them out, with the possibility of dealing with whatever hazard they might pose.
Many companies will allow others to come in and salvage because they then don't have to deal with the disposal problem. I work with a small mission in Mexico - there is a paint store that gives us gallons of paint every year. Otherwise they would have to pay hazardous disposal fees to get rid of it. As is we mix it and come up with other colors and give it away or sell it cheap. It may just be cheap because they know what they would have to pay to dispose of it. Think LEAD and the new rules in Europe...
It's a real shame if it is.
They were a really good company to work for, and the Copenhagen teams some of the most helpful.
I hope they get sorted out quickly.
